God Didn’t Do That

I would like for us to think about something that is common, but very dangerous. When we encounter trouble in life, when we suffer disappointment, turmoil or tragedy, we may be tempted to lay the blame at God’s door. We may even say “Why is God doing this to me?”
In our own thinking, and perhaps in the presence of others, we may complain of our difficulty and then claim or leave the impression that GOD did this to us. God has done marvelous things for every one of us. His providential strength and wisdom is manifested, some we may not fully know and appreciate. But when it comes to a variety of things we commonly complain about, it must be affirmed that God Didn’t Do That.
If you’ve made some dreadful mistakes in your marriage and you’re now facing the results of your wrong choices and habits, God didn’t do that to you. If you rushed into marriage without maturity, prayer and wisdom, If you made a whole series of wrong choices in your early years of marriage and you’re now suffering, it’s not right to accuse God in these matters. God didn’t cause you to make those decisions you now regret. If we made some impulsive decisions in our youth, perhaps against all the good influence of Christians, we must not now blame our trouble on God.
If you have a personal history of unwise priorities in spending money, too much reliance on debt, ill-advised stewardship and impetuous purchases, and you’re now reaping the results of that ,God didn’t do that to you. God did not force you into a single purchase, He did not send you a credit card and did not lead you to the supermarket or to the car dealers. If you have misused a dozen credit cards and you now find yourself with no cash but debts, don’t blame God for all that. When we enjoy prosperity or have a financial surplus, we tend to congratulate ourselves, we say things like, “I sure did good last year. I made some great investments, I worked hard—now look at what I have to show for my ambition and hard work” Then a few years later – when we have spent our surplus and squandered our goods on prodigal living, we blame God for our poverty. We take credit for the good times and blame God for the bad. It may be you have made some decisions in life which were not necessarily immoral or sinful, just the wrong decision at the wrong time. Maybe a career change, and did not turn out as you expected. Now you have difficulty because of that decision, but it was your personal decision and you cannot blame God for a decision you made.
Well it could be that you’re suffering now because of what somebody did to you, NOT GOD! If a friend has betrayed you, it does not mean God has betrayed you. If a spouse has not been faithful to you, God didn’t do that. If your children have become “street gangs” and they’re been shot in the head, you raised your children not God. If people are taking advantage of you, God isn’t taking advantage of you. If people who call themselves Christians have lied to you, lied about you, or ignored your needs, they were not doing the will of God in that behaviour. Don’t blame God for what people do.
JAMES 1:13-17 says :” Let no one say when he’s tempted, “I am tempted by God”, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above ,and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning”.
It’s a dangerous exercise of ignorance, ingratitude and immaturity to know what God says, do the opposite and then blame him for what we’ve done. What an unworthy thought to pour scorn on God, when we have made the choice to reject His will.
Finally when we make choices that make life hard for us, When we spend money we don’t have and get into trouble, When people hurt us or disappointments come into our lives we cannot explain, let us not rash with our mouth to utter anything hastily before God.
May the will of GOD be done.
By: Obourba Asante Taado